Happy Birthday Mum!

If my Mother, Anita, had been alive, she would have been 81 years old today! as it was, she left us at the age of 69 years.

1999 at Alcalali near Denia Spain

Mum would be absolutely horrified, if she was still with us, to have this information published on the internet. She was a very private person, her business, was her business and nobody elses, and in many cases that applied to family as well, which sometimes made for difficult situations, but she was still my Mum.

It's funny how time flies, I often think of her, and my Father, Peter, I know Mum used to say that she was a 'Hoarder', but in truth, she wasn't, she kept things of sentimental value, and like many of us, there were things that could have gone to the skip that didn't, but she often threw things out that were of no further use, and when my Brother and I went to clear out the house after she passed on, there was not a great lot that I would have classed as rubbish.

Mum had a very practical mind, she lived on her own for 25 years after Father died, having no interest in another relationship, she looked after her house on her own, doing much of her own decorating, and inventing things to assist in making life easier around the house and garden. Mother enjoyed fly fishing, and all things to do with the countryside,

Fly Fishing on her Father's Lake, Fladbury, Worcestershire

she was very active up until the end, she was also philosophical, she new her illness was of her own doing, and accepted it, but she refused to go into hospital, ending her days where she was most happy, in her home.

Some would have called Mother an eccentric, maybe she was in her own way, but she coped, and she was fiercely loyal to Family.

c.1974: Left to right: Dad, Me, Mum, David

I could write a book on life with Mum, but I won't, just to say, we had our differences, all families do, but I am proud to say that, she was my Mum!